21.09.2012, 16:31
Tuned for further developments.
lt happened in Los Angeles. At the intersection of Beverly Boulevard and La Cienega. Out of the Beverly Center garagecame a megabucks Italian street sculpture that was there one second, and gone the next in a shriek of screaming yellow.
That's when your heart sank for the 1,427th time. If you're like most sports car aficionados, you probably lust for a mid-engine sports car, but would rather not pony up a couple of bales of lire to pay for one. Relax. Take another swig of your spring water and lime, then repeat after me: Fiero Formula, Fiero GT. Thats Pontiac's way of saying that you should have the hot mid-engine sports car you've dreamed about. Since its acclaimed introduction,
Fiero has been in continuous devel-opment, adding power and refinement with every click. This year, it was the Suspension system's turn from the tread an the tires to the engine mounts. In fact, a recent issue of AutoWeek said, "...Pontiac should have changed the name of the car to reflect just how differently it drives."
Truth is, the original Fiero was one nimble number. But "good" just wasn't good enough for Fiero's engineers. After all, some of them design, build and drive racing machines when they're not making better Fieros.
The right choice forATK..
A specially prepared Fiero GTP-Lracer: A good performance call, this Fiero brought tire Manufacturers championship to Pontiac after winning 13 pole positions and 9 races, including a GTP-L class victory at the grueling 24 Hours of Daytona. It managed to beat Ferrari, Porsche and Mazda-powered GTP-L entries, in addition to many more powerful GTP cars, including a couple of J2guars and even a stray Mustang. Designed by the people who bring you showroom Fieros, buik of the most advanced materials known to racing, and powered by a specially modified, but production-based Super Duty engine, the car is a glimpse of things to come from your friends in the excitement business. Oh, yes. Three other important reasons why Pontiac races. They like it. They have a lot of fun. They win.
A clean sheet of paper and a new box of pencils resulted in a new front suspension. Components like longer control arms and shorter spindles give a shorter scrub radius.
With that kind of attitude, about all they kept from Fiero's original front suspension were the grease fittings. Bold as you please, the chassis wizards went and made longer control arms and shorter spindles to give improved wheel travel and less undesirable feed-back. This hardware, in turn, rests in a cradle that mounts solidly to the space frame.
The development story's much the saure in back. The rear suspension is a multiple-link layout. Two parallel lateral links locate the wheels from side-to-side, while the ups-and-downs are handled by a pair of longitudinal links, constant rate coil springs and high-rate struts.
Too bad these gears are hidden inside Fiero's 5-Speed trans. Precise matching, needle bearings, and Teflon-coated stress surfaces make for smooth shifts.
The redesign of major components allowed the smaller ones to be optimized as well. New vibration-eating hydraulic engine mounts allowed the subframe to be attached solidly to the body for more consistent rear suspension geometry. Disc brake rotors are 50% thicker and vented to provide better performance than ever. Some privateer Showroom Stock racers gave these brakes a clandestine baptism-of-fire at Lime Rock. Plenty of pedal left at the end of the race. 'Nuff said.
All this advancement wouldn't be worth a fig if there weren't some tires that could handle the two-way task of communicating with the road. Good-year Eagle GT+4 skins, with new all-weather tread, make it a snap. Wheels are 15 x T' in back, 15 x 6" in front.
Growling underneath the forward-hinged decklid is the 2.8L V6 with MFI - the turning point in Fiero's performance career.
The new design also allowed a 22 mm rear stabilizer bar to be included for more neutral handling characteristics.
Its resukant transient response is sharply Pontiac, with a heavy Italian accent. Hit the rough stuff, and the ride is surprisingly smooth. lt is, as one engineer says, "an easy car to go quickly in." Very quickly.
The new Fiero Formula, below, packs the saure multi-port fuel-injected V6 and WS6 suspension as the GT (bottom of page)...with the alternative of notchback style. The perfect excuse to go ahead and take your banana and Split.
Its 60 (degree) crankshaft has deep-rolled fillets that head off stress.
The rods are forged steel, with full floating wrist pins, offset 1.5mm toward the major thrust side for more gradual thrust pressure buildup. Pistons are 8.5:1 alloy castings.
Up topside is a three-piece tuned-runner intake manifold, which supports the fuel rail and the six injectors. Unique within Pontiac is Fiero's advanced Speed-density engine management system. lt matches operating conditions to a pre-programmed map for optimum performance.
Exhaust gases leave the engine courtesy of a one-piece stainless steel dual-oudet system that sings with authority. GT also gets some snazzy polished stainless megaphones that look as good as they sound.
Build biceps an your own time - but not wich the speed-sensitive power steering this special pump helps create.
About like a high-New 370 hp. 3.OL Super Duty 16-ventil race engine, for off-road use, right? Your Pontiac dealer car supply youwith a parts list to build one, or call (601) 817-5190 (Old # DON'T call)
Better driving through geometry. Tri-link design Cuts compliance, maximizes wheel travel, and allows a 11mm stablizer bar for more rear roll stiffness
Numbers? Try 135 hp. and 165 lbs.-ft. of torque. Warning: that may cause habit-forming tendencies in your right foot. Especially wich Getrag-licensed 5-speed transmission. Neat stuff inside the gearbox includes roller and ball bearings an the input and out-put shafts, larger synchros and not one, but three shift fork rails for more contact area, and hence easier shifting. Teflon coats critical surfaces for reduced friction. Ring and pinion ratio is 3.61:1, wich a final top gear ratio of 2.60:1.
Coming at mid-year for Fiero GT and Formula is one of the neatest performance inventions since the alu-minum wheel. IYs called "speedsensitive steering," and for good reason. ltis. A first for Pontiac, the system has an electrically driven hydraulic pump that varies steering assist inversely with vehicle speed, i.e., more speed = less assist. Dawdle around town, and the assist significantly reduces steering effort. Hit the road, and effort increases at a linear rate from 10 to 50 mph. Above that speed, you experience only 20% assist.
Follow the shifter to the interior and you'll find a home for your Formula One fantasies. Instrumentation is strictly analog, with readouts for revs, speed, amps, vofts, oil pressure and water temperature. The steering wheel feels connected to the wheels in an almost telepathic way. Step out of the average "Bulgemobile" and into a Fiero, and you might experience some initial disorieniation. But hustle along the twisties for a bit, and it all becomes second nature.
Seating is fitted to your contours, and covered in nubby-finished Pallex cloth in the Formula, or new Metrix if we're talking GT. Also new are available Ventura leather seating surfaces for the GT, perforated for comfort in critical areas. performance manual steering unit. A feel for the road? Pontiac wouldn't have it any other way.
Fiero Formula and GT have plenty to offer in the looks department, too. Formula is the purist Fiero profile, adorned only by a spoiler and two "Formula" decals. In Bright Yellow, with the 5-speed and not much more, it's the classic sports car.
If cutting a crisp profile, rather than carving up off-camber sweepers, is your idea of a good time, then GT is your machine: suitable evening wear for the enthusiast-about-town.
Come to think of it, for the price of that Italian Dream Date, you could buy a Fiero Formula, a Fiero GT, a couple of snazzy suits, and still have enough left over for a nice long vacation in the land of Caesar.
Ciao, baby.